Denise, our bedroom is looking about the same! lol our bed, Will's crib and I just keep holding off on bringing that cute little cradle that is in the nursery, in our bedroom! lol For now, there is no room for it. I know I will SQUEEEEEEEEEZE it in somehow when I need to! And I am the absolute same as you on "keeping the peace". I would rather let him crawl up and snuggle in the middle of the night than him scream and keep me awake! Bad, I know! Try putting the bed right up to yours to start out. That way you can rub her back or hair until she goes to sleep. This is what worked for WIll. For now, he is still in the bed at the foot of ours. When he starts to get out as we are watching TV, I will crawl down by him and rub his back. He even knows what "go get in your big boy bed" means. lol He will crawl to the end of our bed and lay down. Of course, he has to be in the 'mood'! lol

Sherry,
Romantic??? Whats that? I am going to put Emily in her "big girl bed" tonight but don't have any expectations about her actually being there all night, we have tried to make a big deal about it.

You should she my bedroom; my bed, the cradle, and now the toddler bed. I feel like it is a nursery not a bedroom.

I have tried to put Emily in her bed when she is asleep and comfort her when she wakes up without getting her up and like you it worked for about a week and then back into our bed she goes. I think some of the problem is I get tired of fighting with her and give in, which is the worst thing I can do, I know, but I like to keep the peace.

Perhaps something like this http://babysenchantedgarden.com/home/be1/page/607/65 will help?
I use LOTS of pillows to keep my roly poly baby from getting to close to the edge of the bed. Perhaps a few large body pillows might help?
Good luck! Now that's she's mobile, it'll be a bit more difficult. Your best bet is probably to lay the bed on the floor. :

Denise.
Oh, I am sympothizing with you! Everything we try seems to work for awhile. Then....out the window!! Will has been a poor sleeper since day 1. Only sleeping through the night a handful of times. When I found out I was pregnant, my first thought was "we have to get Will out of our bed!". We have tried the 'crying it out', Not for us! :) The air mattress on his floor in his room while sleeping with him, a pallet on our floor, etc, etc.... Its so exhausting, to say the least. About a week ago we did the crib butted up to the foot of our bed. Now, when Will wakes up to cry, I quickly go to the foot of the bed and rub his back to let him know that I am near. That has worked for us for the time being. Thank goodness! I just wonder where we will put the baby's bassinet when she gets here. To be quite honest, I just want a pretty frilly bedroom. One that I can relax in and feel 'romantic' in. Yeah right, you can relate!! We are constantly asked "how do you two get romantic?" I jokinly let everyone know that this pregnancy was obviously planned by God and that we should not need birth control, as a 20 month old and newborn in the bed or VERY near is contol enough! lol

Finally someone who can relate to my sleeping woes. My daughter is about to turn 2 tomorrow has slept with us since she was about 6 weeks old. It was the only way we could get any sleep........2 years later and still in our bed, now NO ONE gets ANY sleep. Like Sherry's Will, Emily sleeps sideways and is constantly kicking and head butting us. Thank goodness Evan is happy in his cradle, of course in our room.

My mom got Emily a "big girl bed" for her birthday. We are praying she will sleep in it, in our room of course. Knowing me I will miss her if she does. I too like it when she hugs me in the middle of the night and says: mommy I wove you. Makes my heart melt.

Oh and by the way, she is kind enough to slam the bedroom door closed when she gets up early in the morning and is up-to-no-good.[}:)]

That's so funny, because for awhile (when I was pregnant with Tristan, no less!) I was sleeping scrunched up on a toddler bed - you know the kind, with the crib mattress - because it was better than getting kicked in the head all night long. One of our dogs saw her golden opportunity and started sleeping in my former spot through the remainder of the pregnancy. She's mightily offended that I've reclaimed my spot, she's sleeping in the closet, my daughter's still in the middle, and the toddler bed is collecting dust somewhere upstairs.

I did the boxspring and mattress on the floor thing with Ethan. It mostly just came about because the only other part to our bed were the rails. We moved and just decided not to use them. It worked out really well, but he stayed in bed until we (I) woke up. I probably would have put pillows around the bed otherwise. I'm also an extremely light sleeper when it comes to the kids. Sometimes I swear I've woken up just before they did.

I don't know what we'll do when Ella can get around more. Now we have a nice bedroom set and I would hate to put it away. But this is our arrangement now: five-year-old (yes, you read that right) still between us and five-month-old in her crib right next to me. We're working on making Ethan's room more inviting, but we're not really complaining or rushing him out. It's a long story of how he's stayed there so long.

With Ella, I don't even like her to feel the comfort of our bed. There's just no room. SO FAR, she's ok with where she is, but I'm afraid I'll be sleeping in the crib before long. [:0]

Oh the CO-Sleeping woes! Or the mommy gets no sleep woes! I am SOOO glad that someone touched on this. Will is in our bed...but he starts out there! He still does not sleep through the night. He wakes up screaming for a couple seconds while stretching his head in moms back and feet in dads! Then he's fine for 1/2 hr until he does it again! ITs so exhausting! What we have FINIALLY done is move his crib into our room. We took the side rail off and made it into the 'toddler bed' and moved it all the way up to the foot of our bed. Yes, we had to remove our footrail! :) Now when Will goes to sleep we put him at the foot of our bed in his own big boy bed. Sometimes he sleeps, sometimes he dont! But he cant sneak out without crawling over our feet and waking us up. Love it! :) Little snot!

I am still unsure with his sleeping habits how on Gods earth we will manage him and a newborn! I am determined that the new baby will start out in her own bed.....and CONTINUE that way! Right up until I realize that nursing is so much easier with a co-sleeper! LOL OH HELP!!!! Did I tell you how thankful we are for a king size bed!! LOL